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THE 



Family and Vicissitudes 



OF 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR 



OF 



DUXBURY AND MARSHFIELD. 



A Vexatious Snarl in the 
Genealogy of an Old Colony Progenitor 
Disentangled. 



BY 

AZEL am:es, ml. d.. 

Member Piu>rim Society, Etc. 



MALDEN, MASS.: 

Press of George E. Dunbar, 

1903. 









two Copies iXfciiivsJ 
JUL 21 1905 



COPY S 



Copyright, 1903, 

BY 

AZEL AMES. 



JOHN PHILLIPS OF MARSHFIELD. 



It is probably safe to say that none among the many 
confused and perplexing genealogies of the early "Old 
Colony" families, has more bewildered and misled able 
and well-known antiquarians than that of John Phillips of 
Marshfield. 

Owing to the tragic event — in that day especially 
dread and impressive — which twice befell it, this family 
received mention at the hands of nearly all the early chron- 
iclers of New England, and nearly all have singularly 
confused both its individuals and the events affecting them. 

Mather, Morton, Josselyn, Hull, Hubbard, Prince, 
Alden, Savage, Farmer, Deane, Winsor, Mitchell, Davis, 
Marcia Thomas, Goodwin and lastly, Shurtleff, have all 
recorded, with more or less of circumstance, the calamities 
which overtook Mr. Phillips — as was then believed by the 
priestly scribes, as " a special visitation of God" — and nearly 
every one has made one or more radical errors as to these 
vicissitudes and those affected by them. 

The author of this little sketch has himself — as have 
others of his family — more than once, made efforts to disen- 
tangle the snarled thread of this ancestral genealogy and its 
related events, only to "give it up " in despair, as something 
which the Fates and each chronicler had conspired to make 
more knotted and involved. 

It is pleasant to state, however, that a recent persistent 

effort, with all available data in hand, has effected the long 

desired result and this is given in the following pages. 

AzKi* Amks. 
Wakefield, Oct. i, 1903. 




THE JOHN PHILLIPS LOCALITY. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR. 

It appears well-nigh certain that the John Phillips 
who was of Duxbury and Marshfield in the colony of New 
Plimouth, between 1640 and 1690, came to Duxbury in 
1639/ presumably from the Massachusetts Bay colony, 
having "bought of Robert Mendall of Duxburrow a house 
and land for £(> in hand and XVIIteene pounds" to be 
paid in installments, " at the house of Mr. Winthrop in 
Boston."'^ He was quite certainly the John Phillips whom 
Deane says,® " settled early in Duxbury " and " had several 
children, born probably in England." 

He is not to be confounded, it would appear, with the 
John Phillips whom Governor Bradford states,^ "came to 
Plymouth as a servant, seeking service and a change of 
masters," in 1630, and about whom some sharp correspond- 
ence between the Bay Puritans and the Plymouth Pilgrims 
occurred. From the statement of his will,^ Mr. Phillips 
doubtless was born about 1602 and would have been in 1630, 
about twenty-eight years old and beyond the usual age of 
servants still having time to serve. 



1. Plym. Col. Deeds. Prince Chronology, Vol. II, p. 4. Winsor's 
Hist, of Duxbury, p. 282. Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic, p. 355. note. 

2. Idem. 

3. Deane's Hist, of Scituate, p. 322. Phillips never lived at Scit- 
uate, though given mention by Deane as if he did. 

4. Governor Bradford's Letter Book. Goodwin's Pilgrim Re- 
public, p. 354. Drake's Hist, of Boston, p. 132. 

5. Plym. Col. Wills, closed series. Vol. I, p. 140. Genealog, 
Advertiser, Vol. 3, p.28. 



\ 



6 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

No mention of his first marriage, or of the births of 
children by his first wife, appears on Plymouth Colony 
Records, hence the inference that he was married ^ and 
had children before coming to the colony, which inference 
is further warranted by the fact that his son, John, (killed 
by lightning in 1658 Y must then have been, by what is 
known of him, about twenty-five years of age. The facts, 
too, of Mr. Phillips' purchase of a house and land at 
Duxbury in 1639, and of the immediate grants to him by 
the colony, of considerable land adjacent to his purchase, 
would seem to indicate a man of some means and already 
"of family." 

He was granted by the Colony Court, ^ April 6, 1640, 
' ' a garden place upon Stony Brooke in Duxburrow by 
Phillip Delanoyes, to be laid forth by Mr. Collyer, Jonathan 
Brewster and William Basset." June ist of the same year,* 
he was granted "four acres of upland abutting upon the 
Stony Brooke in Duxburrow by the milne (mill) to rang 
(range) south and north in length and east and west in 
breadth," and November 2d of the same year, he was granted 

"twenty acrees, his houslott to be pt thereof, 

of those lands that lie northward from Duxburrow mill, 
towards Greens Harbor."® 

In 1643 he was "an inhabitant" of Duxbury, as his 



1. Winsor's Hist, of Duxbury, p. 291, says: "Married in 
England." 

2. Plym. Col. Records, Court Orders, Vol. Ill, p. 141. Prince's 
Chron. and Lightning at Marshfield in 1658 and 1666, Dr. N. B. 
Shurtleff, (1850) p. i. 

3. Plym. Col. Rec, Vol. I, p. 145. 

4. Idem. p. 153. 

5. Plym. Col. Rec, Vol. I, p. 165. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD, 7 

name appears that year, on the list of those of that town, 
" able to bear arms."^ 

Miss Marcia A. Thomas says :^ "He came early to 
Marshfield." The exact date of his removal to this town is 
not known, but he was engaged in a lawsuit with a Marsh- 
field citizen in 1653 f was Surveyor of Highways'* there in 
1655; was constable^ in 1657, and was propounded® as 
a "freeman" in 1659, though he does not appear to have 
ever taken up his rights as such. 

He seems to have had by a former wife (whose name 
and date of death are unknown), sons John, Samuel and 
Jeremiah and a daughter Mary.^ 

John Phillips, Jr., was quite certainly his father's eldest 
son and by certain evidence would seem to have been a 
householder at ( South ) Marshfield in July, 1658. He 
surely was living at that time in the house formerly occupied 
by Rev. Edward Bulkley ® when minister there, and as 



1. Winsor's Hist, of Duxbury, p. 93. 

2. Marcia A. Thomas' Memorials of Marshfield, p. S3. 

3. ri}'m. Col. Rec, Vol. Ill, p. 39. 

4. Idem., Vol. Ill, p. 79. 

5. Idem., p. 116. 

6. Idem., p. 163. 

7. Dr. Shurtleff's Tract, " Lightning at Marshfield," etc., (p. 
40), as tested by all known data and compared with all other sources 
of information appears, upon this point, correct beyond doubt. Miss 
M. A. Thomas {op. cit., p. 83), is clearly in error in naming a 
William as a son of John Phillips and doubly so, in calling him the 
" eldest." 

8. Plym. Col. Records, Court Orders, Vol. Ill, p. 141. The 
"verdict" or "finding" of the inquest upon the death of John 
Phillips, Jr. The house is called therein, "Mr. Buckleye's house," 
but this is simply a mis-spelling of the name of Rev. Mr. Bulkle}', 
whose house stood not far from the site of the present Railroad 
station at (South) Marshfield. 



8 THK FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

hereinafter noted, it was called in the language of the 
official inquest/ "his (Phillips') dwelling." From this it 
might perhaps be inferred that he was a man of family, 
though no record or other evidence whatever, is found of his 
marriage, or that he had children. 

It is, indeed, very doubtful if young Phillips was ever 
married, or, if he was himself the house-holder in the 
"dwelling" named. It is true that the language of the 
" verdict "^ of the official inquest upon his death, as well as 
the presence of the child mentioned (b)^ Capt. Thomas ^) 
would lend color to such supposition. 

On the other hand there is, as noted, no record, or other 
evidence of his marriage, or of the birth of any child to him. 
Again ' ' Goodwife Williamson ' ' testified (as the verdict of 
the official inquest recites), that young Phillips was in good 
health when he came from his work on the day he was 
killed. Why should " Goodwife Williamson " testify and not 
his own wife, if he had one ? It is singular, too, if he had 
a wife, that nothing is said of her presence or existence then, 
or of her or her affairs afterward, and the same would be true 
of any child of his. 

It seems probable, therefore, that "Goodwife William- 
son " and her family lived in the " Bulkley house," and that 
Phillips was but a sojourner, working perhaps, at " haying," 
etc., for Goodman Williamson, or some other, and that the 
child mentioned was not his but the Williamsons'. 

A lease of land, made by Miss Grace (Halloway) 
Reade, the elder daughter of Mrs. Grace Halloway- Phillips 



1. Plym. Col. Court Recs., Vol. Ill, p. 141. 

2. Idem. 
See Captain Thomas' account, pp. 8 et seq. 



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Fac-simile of lease of half the " Hallowa_v Farm" which Mrs. John Phillips, Senior, owned, 
and her step-sou, John Phillips, Jr., worked, when killed in 165S. 
(Oricfinal in possession of the Anthor.) 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 9 

(wife of John, Sen'r), a short time after her marriage to Mr. 
Josiah Reade, hereafter noted, in the Fall of 1666, (soon 
after her mother's death) is very suggestive as to the 
probabilities in this matter. 

By the phraseology of this lease it appears that a certain 
lot of " upland and meadow " with "an orchard," (but no 
house mentioned), were a part of the estate of William Hal- 
loway, father of said Grace and former husband of Mrs. Grace 
Halloway-Phillips, her mother. This land evidently became 
the property of the widow Grace Halloway at her husband's 
death. ^ (Her settlement at ^10 apiece, with her two 
daughters, for their shares of their father's estate is stated 
hereafter.) This property was evidently owned b}^ Mrs. 
Grace Hallowa3^-Phillips, from the time of her former hus- 
band's death in 1652, to the time of her sudden death in 
1666. By the lease cited, it appears to have descended to her 
two daughters in "equal halfe-parts," and it is declared 
"was the lands of William Halloway deceased." It is 
described as "lying next to Timothy Williamson's." 

There is little doubt that Timothy Williamson was occu- 
pying the house and lands known as " Rev. Mr. Bulkley's " 
at the time of the lightning event in 1658 and it was to his 
house that John Phillips, Junior, with Captain Nathaniel 
Thomas and another man, fled for shelter on the last day 
of July in that year when the tempest almost immediately 
fatal to young Phillips, threatened them. 

It is evident that at that time the " upland and meadow," 

as described in this lease of Grace (Halloway) Reade and 

her husband Josiah, to William Ford, was the property of 

Mrs. Grace Halloway-Phillips, the wife of John Phillips, 

I. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. Ill, p. 22. 



lO THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

Senior. Captain Thomas says in his account of the death 
of young Phillips, that just before the fatal tempest burst 
upon them, he met Phillips and another man "coming out 
of a meadow from makeing hay to the next house." 

It seems well-nigh certain that the younger John Phillips 
was engaged at that time, in "getting the hay," upon the 
meadow land owned by his stepmother, Mrs, Grace Phillips, 
and that while so doing he made the home of Timothy Wil- 
liamson " his dwelling," as it is called in the language of the 
official inquest. With this view every known fact and state- 
ment perfectly harmonizes, while it makes intelligible some 
things not otherwise readily understood. 

Samuel Phillips, probably the second son of John 
Phillips, Senior, appears to have married and had a family,^ 
as we shall see, and to have survived not only his brothers, 
John, (killed by lightning in 1658), Jeremiah, (killed, like 
his elder brother, by lightning, in 1666), and his half-brother 
Joseph, (killed in the Indian fight at Rehoboth, 1676-7), but 
also his father, who lived to the great age of ninety, as well 
as his father's four wives. 

The daughter, Mary, who was "feeble-minded," also 
survived her father and all his wives. ^ 

Mr. John Phillips, Senior, married as his (supposedly) 
second wife, July 6, 1654, at the age of fifty-two, Mrs. 

Grace ( ) Halloway^ (sometimes called in Plymouth 

Colony Records, Hallow ell'),'^ widow of William Halloway of 



1. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. VIII, p. 70. 

2. She is named and provided for in her father's will, made 
shortly before his death. 

3. Marshfield, (Mass.,) Town Recs., Vol. I, p. i. Mayflower 
Descendant, Vol. II, p. 4. 

4. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. I, p. 132 ; Vol. Ill, pp. 22 and 45. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. II 

Duxbury and Marshfield ( ? ) , Mr, Halloway having died 
prior to March i, 1652-3,^ leaving two daughters, Grace and 
Hannah (or Jane ) Halloway.^ Grace Phillips was probably 
more than fifteen years younger than her husband. Her 
maiden name is not known. 

By this marriage Mr. Phillips had two sons : Joseph, 
born at Marshfield,^ "the last of March," 1655; and Benja- 
min, born at Marshfield,* . . . 1658. There is no trust- 
worthy evidence that Mr. Phillips had any other children by 
her, though Dr. Shurtleff ^ and others, have mentioned such, 
but all have, it appears, confused the children of Mrs. Grace 
Phillips by her first husband (Halloway) with those she had 
by Mr. Phillips.^ 

1. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. Ill, p. 22. Administration in the estate 
of William Hollowell (Halloway) was granted his widow at this date. 

2. Idem. Vol. Ill, p. 45. Grace, widow of Wm. Halloway, 
"doth allow unto her two daughters ten pounds apiece." Dr. N. B. 
Shurtleff in his " Lightning at Marshfield," etc., names these daugh- 
ters as " Grace and Hannah," while the marriage record of Grace ap- 
pears hereinafter. Miss M. A. Thomas {op. cit. p. 84), also names 
" Grace and Hannah as the children of Mrs. Grace Holloway by her 
first husband, Wm. Holloway." Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. II, p. 187, 
mention a "Jane Holloway," whom the context makes it quite 
certain was intended for " Hannah." 

3. Marshfield Town Recs., Vol. I, p. 2, Mayfloiver Descendant , 
Vol. II, p. 6. 

4. The birth of Benjamin Phillips is not found on record, but is 
closely approximated as to the year, (1658,) by calculations from the 
other data in hand. 

5. Dr. Shurtleff, (op. cit. p. 40) evidently in error and in contra- 
diction of himself, (p. 50), calls Grace and Hannah, " daughters ^ilfr, 
Phillips by wife Grace." (Italics the author's.) W. T. Davis, (Ancient 
Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 205), makes the same mistake. No Grace 
or Hannah Phillips of that relation existed. 

6. Apparently, there is nowhere any intimation of other children 
of Mr. Phillips by his wife Grace, except such as has arisen from 
confounding her daughters, by her former husband, with his (Mr. 
Phillips') children. 



12 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

The son Joseph Phillips, was killed as noted, with Capt. 
Michael Pierce of Scituate, in the stubborn, but terribly- 
disastrous fight with the Indians at Rehoboth,^ Sunday, March 
26, 1676-7.^ 

Benjamin Phillips, as hereafter appears, married,^ had a 
family and survived his father/ 

In 1658 (July 31), Mr. John Phillips, Junior, who had, 
as noted, seemingly become a householder or sojourner at 
South Marshfield — a different part of the town from that 
where his father lived — was killed, by lightning, in ' ' his 
dwelling, as has been indicated." This event, tragic and no- 
table enough in itself, is said to have been the earliest known 
death by lightni^ig in the New England colonies^ and was very 
widely noticed^ and recorded,^ as has been shown, but 
only the account of Capt. Nathaniel Thomas, a leading citi- 
zen of Marshfield'^ and long a distinguished official of the 



1. Letter of Rev. Mr. Newman of Rehoboth, to Rev. John Cotton 
of Plymouth, the day after the massacre, given in full in Deane's 
Hist, of Scituate (p. 122). Savage's Gen. Diet., Vol. Ill, p. 412. 

2. Idem. 

3. Marshfield Town Recs., Vol. I, p. 11. Mayflower Descendant, 
Vol. Ill, p. 43. 

4. Will of John Phillips, Plym. Col. Wills, Vol. I, p. 140. 
Geneal. Advertiser, Vol. Ill, p. 28. 

5. There are over twenty published accounts of the death by 
lightning of John Phillips, Junior, many people, (perhaps most, at 
that time), regarding this manner of death as by direct act of God. 
As such, and as of greater rarity than now, such a tragedy was then 
far more impressive than in these days. 

6. Plym. Col. Recs., Court Orders, Vol. Ill, p. 141. The ac- 
count of the inquest, as then duly recorded, is given in full later. 
The event was also contemporaneously noted in the diary of John 
Hull, the famous mint-master of Boston, and elsewhere. 

7. Capt. Nathaniel Thomas, son of William Thomas, Esq., one 
of the Pilgrim Merchant Adventurers, who "fitted out" Vmo. May- 
Flower, and who was for many years an Assistant Governor of Ply- 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 13 

Colony,^ who chanced to be an eye witness, is quoted here, 
being alike direct and comprehensive. 

The date ("August ") assigned the occurrence by Cap- 
tain Thomas, is alone erroneous and is authoritively cor- 
rected by other evidence.^ His statement, taken together 
with the official verdict at the inquest ordered by the Colony 
Court, fully gives the essential facts as follows : — 

" In the month of August (error, as noted) in the j'ear 
1658, there w^as in the Towne of Marshfield, a terrible storm 
of Thunder lyightning & raine, & and as I w^as going home- 
ward being about a mile from home I met with one John 
Phillips & another man coming out of a meadow from 
making hay to the next house for shelter from the storm, who 
advised me to goe in with them to the house least I should 
be overtaken in the storm ere I should get home the storm 
then coming up exceedingly black and Terrible. I accord- 
ingly went in with them, & the sd Phillips sat downe on a 
stoole with his face toward the Iner door & his back to the 
hearth & his side closs to the Jam of the chimney I sat 
down with my face directly toward him about six foot from 



mouth Colony, and probably the richest man in the community. 
Captain Thomas was the commander of the Marshfield " traine 
band," an officer in the Pequot War, and at this time, the most promi- 
nent citizen of the town. Dr. Shurtleff (op. cit. p. 32) was certainly 
in error in thinking him " the grandson of William." 

1. Captain Thomas was later a colonel, judge and councillor and 
held many important positions of trust and responsibility in colonial 
affairs. 

2. The date assigned by Captain Thomas, "The month of 
August," it should be remembered was given several years afterward, 
from memory. The Rev. Mr. Arnold wrote in the margin of his 
letter, now among the "Mather Papers," ( Shurtleff, op. cit. p. 6). 
"The time, as I am certainly informed, was the last day of July, 
1658." The inquest also certainly fixes the date. 



14 THK FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

him, the Thunder came quickly up over the house The 
Clouds flying exseeding L,ow and thick soe that the heavens 
were much darkened Then in a moment came downe ( as it 
were ) a great ball of fire with a Terrible crack of Thunder & 
fell Just before where the sd Phillips sat, my eye then hap- 
ening to be on him saw him once start on the stole he sat on 
& fell from thence dead on the hearth backward without any 
motion of life, many bricks of the chimney were beaten 
downe the principle Rafters split the battens and lineing 
next the chimney in the chamber broken, one of the maine 
posts of the house into which the sumer [girder] was framed 
torn into shivers & great part of it carried severall rod from 
the house, the dore where the ball of fire came downe Just 
before the sd Phillips was broken downe, out of the girt or 
sumer aforesaid being a dry oake was peices wonderfully 
taken. I doe not remember there was any outward appear- 
ance of hurt upon the body of the sd Phillips, a young child 
being at that moment about three foot from sd Phillips had 
noe harm."^ 

The record of the Inquest upon the body of young 

Phillips is as follows : — 

"Att the Court of Assistants held at Plymouth the fourth 
of August 1658 befor William Collyare, Capt, Josias Wins- 
low Leiftenant Thomas Southworth and Ensign William 
Bradford, Assistants, &c — 

Mr. Josias Winslow, Senr. Timothy Williamson 
Mr. John Bradford, Abraham Jackson 

Mr. Samuell Arnold Samuell Baker 



I. Dr. Shurtleff, op. cit. pp. 17 and 18. Mather Papers, in pos- 
session of Mass. Hist. Society. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIBLD. I5 

Thomas Doghead [Doggett] Anthony Snow 

John Russell Josepth Rose 

John Adams John Caruer [Carver] 

Being Impanelled and sworne to site upon the Corpes of 
John Phillips Junr, whoe very suddenly expired on Satterday 
the last day of July 1658. 

Wee find that this psent day John Phillips Junr. came 
into his dwelling lately knowne or called Mr. Buckleyes house 
in good health as Goodwife Williamson affirmeth and satt 
upon a stoole by the chimney and by an Immediate hand of 
God manifested in Thunder and lightning the said John 
Phillips came by his death. "^ 

The keen and widespread interest in the event recited, 



I. Plym. Col. Recs., Court Orders, Vol. Ill, p. 141, Shurtleff, 
op. cit. pp. 21 and 22. 

It will be seen that this was quite a distinguished " Court " and 
"Coroners Jury." Of " the Court " William Collyare [Collier] was 
one of the Merchant Adventurers who fitted out " The May-Flower." 
Capt. Josias Winslow was the son of Gov. Edward and afterward him- 
self, " the first native-born Governor of Plymouth Colony. " Ivieut. 
Thos. Southworth was the step-son of Gov. William Bradford of that 
Colony, and Ensign Wm. Bradford was the eldest son of Governor 
Bradford by his second wife, the mother of Lieutenant Southworth. 

Of the Jury — Mr. Josias Winslow, Senr., was the brother of Gov. 
Edward Winslow. Mr. John Bradford was the eldest son of Governor 
Bradford by his first wife, Dorothy May, who was drowned from 
" The May-Flower." Mr. Samuel Arnold was then minister of Marsh- 
field. Thos. Doggett, John Russell and John Adams were all promi- 
nent citizens of Marshfield. Timothy Williamson was very probably 
a relative of Mr. Williamson, the supercargo of ''TTie May-Flower, ^^ 
was also a resident of Marshfield, and apparently the tenant of " Rev. 
Mr. Bulkley's house." Samuel Baker was a nephew by marriage, of 
Gov. Edward Winslow. Anthony Snow was a son-in-law of Richard 
Warren of " The May- Flower." Joseph Rose was a citizen of Marsh- 
field and John Carver, another citizen, was a relative and namesake 
of the o\(S. first Governor of the Colony. 



1 6 THE LIFE AND VICISSITUDES OF 

and thereby, in the family of John Phillips, Senior, was 
of course, greatly heightened by the still more remarkable 
and impressive disaster which again befell this family on 
June 23, 1666,^ just eight years later, when the dwelling of 
Mr. Phillips, situate in the eastern part of the town of 
Marshfield,^ was struck by lightning and fourteen persons 
therein were prostrated and overcome, three of whom were 
instantly killed. 

The latter were Mr. Phillips' second wife, Mrs. Grace 
Phillips ; his third son by his first wife, Jeremiah Phillips, 
a young man of twenty years ; and Mr. William Shurtleff, a 
near neighbor, who with his family, (his own house having 
been recently burned), were just then guests of Mr. Phillips. 
The house dog was also killed, while the six children and 
young people who were all about him, escaped unharmed. 

At the time of the first of these disasters by lightning, 
Mr. John Phillips, Senior, had been married to his second 
wife, Grace Halloway, four years, and her first son by him, 
Joseph Phillips, was about three years old, while the second 
son, Benjamin, was born that year. The mistake has been 
made by several writers, of naming Grace Halloway as the wife 
of John Phillips, Jr.^ and Joseph and Benjamin as his sons by 
her, whereas they were his father's sons and his half-brothers. 
Such a view is wholly untenable and without warrant. 



1. Letter of Samuel Arnold, minister of Marshfield, to Rev 
Increase Mather of Boston, dated July 28, 1683, in " Mather Papers,'' 
Morton's New England Memorial, Davis Edition; Shurtleff's "Light- 
ning at Marshfield," etc., etc. 

2. Miss M. A. Thomas' op cit., p. 83, and Dr. Shurtleff's op. 
cit. pp. 47 and 49, taken together. As William Shurtleff's 
residence was well known and he and Phillips were neighbors, it is 
clear that the latter lived in the eastern part of the town and upon 
this all authorities agree. 



JOHN PHII^LIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 17 

That the elder John Phillips married Grace Halloway ; 
that her two daughters went to live with him and he took 
charge of their little property, and that Joseph and Benja- 
min were his sons by Grace Halloway, his second wife, (the 
latter of them being named as such in his will), there is 
ample and positive, official, record -proof . Their mother, 
Grace, incontestably lived with him as his wife, from 1654 
to-liis death in 1666. 

In the latter year, when the second visitation of death 
came to the Phillips family,^ killing instantly, as noted, two 
of its members, (Mrs. Phillips and her step-son Jeremiah), 
Mrs. Phillips' two daughters by her former husband, 
(Halloway) were evidently living with her,^ well-grown girls, 
Grace the elder, her mother's namesake, marrying Josiah 
Reade, the November following her mother's death. ^ Han- 
nah (or Jane) , the other, but little younger, seems to have 
continued, for a time, at least, in her step-father's family. It 
does not appear when or where she died, or that she ever 
married. 

Samuel Phillips, the second son by Mr. Phillips' first 



1. John Phillips, Jr. had then been dead eight years. 

2. Mr. Phillips evidently took over, upon his marriage to Mrs. 
Grace Halloway, the responsibility previously assumed by Rev. Mr. 
Bulkley, for the property interests of the Halloway girls (Plym. Col. 
Recs., Vol. Ill, p. 45), and took them with their mother, to his home, 
where Grace clearly remained till just before her marriage, while 
Hannah (or Jane), was apparently a member of Mr. Phillips' house- 
hold in 1668, two years after her mother's death, as indicated by the 
Colony Court Records, (Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. IV, p. 187). 

3. Josiah Reade and Grace Halloway were married November, 
1666. (Marshfield Town Recs., Vol. I, p. 3. Mayflower Descendant, 
Vol. II, p. III. 



l8 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

wife ;^ Jeremiah, his third son,^ and his daughter Mary,^ were 
all undoubtedly still members of the Phillips family at the 
time of the disaster, while four of the Shurtlefi family, — Mr. 
and Mrs. Shurtleff and their two boys,* — with Mr. Timothy 
Rogers,^ were guests of the Phillipses. 

The fourteen persons present and prostrated at the time 
of the lightning stroke, June 23, 1666, were hence appar- 
rently:— Mr. John Phillips, Mrs. Grace Phillips, Samuel, 
Jeremiah and Mary Phillips, — children of Mr. Phillips by 
his first wife; Joseph and Benjamin Phillips, — his sons by 



1. Aside from the fact that it was then strongly the custom to 
give the first son the father's name, by which John, Jr., was presum- 
ably, the eldest son of Mr. Phillips, Dr. Shurtleff (c/>. cit. p. 40) calls 
him such, as do Davis i^op. cit. p. 205) and Winsor (c/>. cit. p. 291). 
John was the first to leave home and Samuel apparently remained 
some years longer with his father. 

2. Miss Thomas {op. cit. p. 83) says : " His [Mr. Phillips] third 
son Jeremiah." Dr. Shurtleff {op. cit. p. 40) names him as " the third 
son," and (p- 50) calls him "Jeremiah Phillips, a young man about 
twenty years of age, son of Mr. Phillips," while Goodwin {op. cit. pp. 
355> 380) calls him " a lad." 

3. The daughter, Mary, by several proofs, never left home. Her 
father calls her " feeble-minded " in his will, and provides for her as 
such. She evidently never married. She was very certainly at home 
in 1668, by the evidence of the Colony Records. 

4. There are conflicting accounts as to how many children of 
Mr. Shurtleff were with their parents in Mr. Phillips' house when it 
was struck by lightning in 1666, some indicating three (3), but the 
weight of evidence gives but two (2). Dr. Shurtleff, — presumably the 
best informed as well as the most interested, of any of the writers, — 
says: {op. cit. p. 50) "their sons William and Thomas." Rev. Mr. 
Arnold's letter to Rev. Increase Mather (a contemporaneous authority 
upon the spot), coincides, as does also Miss Thomas, the local histo- 
rian. Davis {op. cit. p. 242) gives their names and births. There 
seem to have been only these two children recorded as born to Mr. 
Shurtleff before his death and the son Abiel born immediately after. 

I. Timothy Rogers was a neighbor and as an eye-witness, became 
the most important narrator of the occurrence. 



JOHN PHII.LIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 19 

the second wife ; Hannah and Grace Halloway, — Mrs. Grace 
Phillips' daughters by her former husband ; Mr. William 
Shurtleff and his wife ; their two sons, — William and Thomas 
Shurtleff,— and Mr. Timothy Rogers. In this list^ the 
obvious errors of that given by Dr. Shurtleff, are corrected 
and the demonstrable probabilities are more exactly stated. 
Among the many published accounts of this, then, very 
exceptional and fatal occurrence, perhaps none is more 
graphic than that given in an extract from the letter, already 
referred to, written several years after, by Rev. Samuel 
Arnold, minister of Marshfield, to Rev. Increase Mather, of 
the Second Church, Boston, at the latter's request, as fol- 
lows : — (omitting, as already covered herein, his reference to 
the death by lightning, of John Phillips, Jr., in July, 1658). — 

{The letter of Rev. Samuel Arnold to Rev. Increase Mather.] 
*' Reverend Sir : — 

I salute you in the Lord & have according to your 
desire indeavoured to give you the best information I could 
obtain respecting the 2 terrible stroakes by thunder & light- 
ning that were in our towne by inquiry of such as were eye 
witnesses of those awfull dispensations being as brands pluckt 

out of the burning." 

********* 

"As for the second, being on June 23, 1666, we being 

I. Dr. Shurtleff's list of those present at the time of the light- 
ning stroke {op. cit. p. 50) is defective in that it leaves out Samuel and 
Mary, the grown children of Mr. Phillips by his first wife, whom 
there is every reason to suppose were there, — and after naming Jere- 
miah the third such child, (being killed at the time he was very 
certainly there,) it supplies "/t>«r other young children of Mr. 
Phillips," who did not exist. Joseph and Benjamin the sons of the 
second wife Grace, (who was killed), were all the young children in 
the Phillips family. 



20 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

sorely distressed with drought had on the fourth day of the 
week made an address to the most high God by humble 
fasting & prayer, the drought continued till the last day of 
said weeke on which day it pleased God to answer us by 
terrible things in righteousness who was yet the God of our 
salvation, for about the middle of the sayd day there arose in 
the north the most dismall black cloud I thinke that ever I 
saw our eyes were fixed upon it so pinching was the drought 
we feared least it should go beside us & so terrible was the 
aspect of it that we trembled least it should come over us, 
but God that steers the course of the clouds so disposed that 
it came directly over our town & it was extremely darke & 
thundered and lightened dreadfully, & ther being in the 
hous of John Phillips (father to the forsaid John Phillips 
slaine by the former stroke) the number of 14 psons the 
woman of the hous (Mrs. Grace Phillips) calling earnestly to 
shut the dore which was done,^ instantly a terrible clap of 
thunder fell upon the hous & rent the chimney & split the 
doors in many places & struck most of the psons if not all. 

I. The records of the Rev. S. Danforth (N. E. Hist. Geneal. 

Register, Vol. XXXIV, p. 165) says: "The rest 

of ye churches in like manner besought ye Lord [for rain] and it 
pleased God to send rain more plentifully on ye 23d day [of June] 
following, [1666]. 

" At which time happened a sad accident at Marshfield for in that 
town a certain woman sitting in her house (some neighbors being 
present) & hearing dreadful thunder crackes spoke to her son & said, 
" Boy, shut ye door, for I remember this time 4 [ ? ] years we had like 
to have been killed by thunder and lightning [a reference intended 
doubtless to the disaster of 1858, 8 years previous]. The Boy an- 
swered : " It's all one with God whether ye door be shutt or open." 
The woman said again " Boy shut ye door ! " At her command the 
Boy shut ye door : but immediately ye came a Ball of fire from 
Heaven, down ye chimney & slew ye old woman (whose name was 
Goodwife Phillips) & ye Boy and an old man a neighbor that was 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 21 

"Timothy Rogers my informant told me that when he 
came to himself he saw the hous full of smoake & there was 
a terrible smell of brimstone & that fire lay scattered all 
about the floore whether the fire that was upon the hearth by 
the vjolence of the stroake hurled about the hous or fire from 
heaven he knew not, he thought at first that all the people 
had been dead but himself till it pleased God to revive the 
most of them, but 3 of them were mortally struck with Gods 
arrows that they never breathed more (viz) the wife of John 
Phillips & a son of his about 20 years of age or upwards and 
one Willj. Shertley who having been a little before burnt 
out of his own hous & was with his family a present so- 
journer there, who had (as is sayd) a little child in his arms 
which was wonderfully preserved, there was also a dog 
slaine under a table behinde 2 little children sitting as is 
sayd upon the table ledge the wife of said Shertley being 
big with childe neer her full time was graciously revived & 
notwithstanding both shock and fright seasonably and merci- 
fully delivered."^ Yours in what I may serve you 
Marshfield, July 28, 1683. Sam: Arnold Senj : 
To the Rev. Mr. Increase Mather, etc : " 



present & a dog yt was in ye House but a little child yt was in ye 
arms of ye old man and a woman vidth child being present was soor 
amazed" [dazed]. This was evidently "worked up" for effect by 
the good parson, who drew a little on his imagination for some of 
his facts. Mrs. Grace Phillips was not likely to use the words ascribed 
to her in regard to the lightning's work in 1658, for she was not 
present then, but miles away. 

I. The widow of William Shurtleff who was, as appears, so mar- 
vellously spared, married (as his second wife) Jacob Cooke, son of 
Francis Cooke of the May-Flower, whose first wife was Damaris Hop- 
kins of the Pilgrim ship, and after his (Cooke's) death married Hugh 
Cole, as her third husband. 



22 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OP 

As Mr. Phillips and Mr. Shurtleff were near neighbors,^ 
as stated, the location of Mr, Phillips' home, the spot where 
this remarkable fatality occurred, is readily approximated 
by the suggestion of Dr. Shurtleff ^ as to that of his ancestor 
William, so suddenly cut off, as being — "In the neighbor- 
hood of what is now known as "White's Ferry" near the 
mouth of North River," in the easterly part of the town of 
Marshfield.* 

All the victims of the disaster were doubtless buried from 
this shattered homestall the day following, viz.: June 24, 
1666, as shown by the early records of the town.* Their 
graves have not been certainly located. 

Changes naturally followed rapidly and sequentially, in 
the Phillips' household after the lightning's invasion in June, 
'66. The records ^ of the Colony Court at Plymouth, held 
Oct. 31, 1666, show that : — 

"At this Court John Phillips of Marshfield, tendered® 
to make payment of the sum of ten pounds unto Grace 



1. The letter of Rev. Mr. Arnold so states and Miss Thomas' lo- 
cation of Mr. Phillips' home {pp. cit. p. 83) and Dr. Shurtleff' s location 
of it {pp. cit. p. 47) as also the latter's direct statement (p. 49), all 
clearly indicate that the Phillipsesand Shurtleffs were near neighbors. 

2. Dr. Shurtleff, op. cit. p. 47. 

3. Idem and Miss Thomas, {op. cit. p. 83). " White's Ferry " is a 
very well known and ancient locality on the northern-eastern border of 
Marshfield, taking its name from a very early Ferry across the North 
river to Scituate beach, operated by members of the family of 
Peregrine White the May-Flozver-born Pilgrim. 

4. Marshfield Town Records, Vol. I, p. 6. Mayflower Descendant, 
Vol. II, p. 182. 

5. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. IV. p. 136. 

6. The Colony Records show that, on the death of Mr. William 
Halloway, 1652-3, his widow, Grace, was appointed administratrix of 
his estate by the Court, Mar., 1652-3. (Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. I, p. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 23 

Halloway, the daughter of William Halloway deceased, (and 
Phillips' second wife, Grace Halloway) the said Grace Hallo- 
way being now of age,^ to receive the same as her portion, 
and she having requested Major Winslow^ to advise her in 
reference unto the future way of her livelyhood;' the Court, 
also, approving thereof, have also ordered, that the said sum 
of ten pounds be delivered unto him for to be improved by 
him for her use." 

22). A year later, having inventoried the property, the widow re- 
ported to the Court an offer of " ^10 apiece " to each of their two 
daughters as their share of their father's property. The Court evi- 
dently approved and Rev. Udward Bulkley, (then minister at Marsh- 
field,) bound himself with the widow, to these payments, " on 
the day of marriage " of each of the daughters, (the usual proviso 
of becoming of age being omitted). If either died before then, the 
survivor to enjoy the other's portion. At the Court of May 8, 1654, 
Mr. Bulkley was released and Mr. John Phillips (who the next 
month married Mrs. Halloway) took his place and responsibility. 
Hence the tender now made by Mr. Phillips, of settlement with the 
daughter Grace Halloway, who was seemingly (See Court " Order ") 
nearly "of age," though not yet "married." The other daughter, 
Hannah (or Jane), evidently remained unmarried and in Mr. Phillips' 
care. 

1. Grace was evidently the elder daughter and (her father hav- 
ing died in 1653,) was presumably about eighteen years of age. She 
does not seem to have dealt quite frankly either with the Court, or 
Major Wiuslow, whose advice as to her future she sought, as she inti- 
mated to neither, apparently, her purpose of immediate marriage to 
Josiah Reade, whom she espoused within a month — unless indeed, it 
was " a very sudden affair." 

2. The Major Winslow here named, was Major Josiah, son of the 
illustrious Governor Edward Winslow, third governor of the Pilgrim 
Colony and himself, later, the commander of the Colony's forces and 
the first native-born Governor of the Colony. He was the " Lieutenant 
Wiuslow" of the Court which recorded the inquest upon John Phil- 
lips, Jr., in 1658. 

3. Her " livelyhood," about which she was, seemingl}% so much 
concerned (?) was probably already then provided for, as she very 
(probably) well knew, by her engagement to Mr. Reade, unless, as 
suggested, the " match " was very suddenly made. 



24 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OP 

Hannah Halloway (or " Jane" — as she is once called in 
Plymouth Colony records)^ was evidently the younger of the 
sisters and apparently remained in Mr. Phillips' family for at 
least two years after the death of her mother and the mar- 
riage of her sister to Josiah Reade, as, by Court records, she 
seems to have been there as late as June, 1668, when she and 
Mary Phillips — her step-father's "feeble-minded" daughter 
— were called to account for certain violent behavior toward 
each other for which thej^ were fined. ^ 

As the females of Mr. Phillips' household, remaining 
after the departure of Grace Halloway with her husband,^ in 
November, 1666, were only these two contentious young 
women, Mar}^ and Hannah (Jane), while the male members 
of the family were at least four in number, including two 
young lads, to be cared for, Mr. Phillips was evidently con- 
strained to find another companion to take charge of his 
home. 

Kvidently he sought for experience, as we find him in 
February, 1667, already successful in his suit of Mrs. Faith 
(Clarke) Dotey,^ of Plymouth, the second wife and widow of 
Edward Dotey, the May-Flower Pilgrim, (who died at 
Plymouth, Aug. 23, 1655, )'^ and daughter of Tristram and 

1. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. IV, p. 187. 

2. Idem. What ultimately became of Hannali (or Jane) Hallo- 
way does not appear on record, so far as known. 

3. Reade and his wife were among the first settlers of Norwich, 
Conn. Miss Thomas, op. cit., p. 84. 

4. Mr. Phillips had evidently successfully prosecuted his suit 
from the fact that Mrs. Dotey had, by the date named, assented to the 
marriage, on the conditions later expressed in the ante-nuptial 
agreement. 

5. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. VIII, p. 17. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 25 

Faith Clarke ^ of Duxbury. She was the mother of nine 
children by her first husband, Mr. Dotey, and evidently a 
matron of both years and experience. 

On Feb. 23, 1666-7, Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Faith Dotey 
concluded an ante-nuptial agreement, as appears by the 
records of the Colony Court, '^ upon which it was duly 
entered, as follows : — 

" Upon a motion of marriage betwixt John Phillips of 
Marshfield and Faith Dotey of Plymouth, in the jurisdiction 
of Plymouth in New England in America, the p'ticulars 
were jointly concluded of by the abovesaid p'ties, as 
folio weth : — 

hnprimis : — That the children of both the p'ties shall 
remain att the free and proper and only dispose of their 
owne naturall parents as they shall see good to dispose of 
them : — 

Seco7idly : — That the said Faith Dotey is to enjoy all her 
house and land goods and catties, that shee is now possessed 
of, to her owne proper use, to dispose of them att her owne 
free will from time to time, and att any time as she shall 
cause ; 

Thirdly : — That in case by death God shall remove the 
said John Phillips before her, that she come to be left a 
widdow, that then shee shall have and enjoy one third p'te, 
or one pte in three, of all his estate that he dieth possessed 
of, for her livelyhood during her life, — that is to say, one 



1. Savage's Geneal. Diet., Vol. 1. Drake's Founders of N. E., p. 
53. Davis' Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 62. Winsor's Hist, 
of Duxbury, p. 246, etc., etc. 

2. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. IV, p. 193. A very just and sensible 
agreement. 



26 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

third part of all his estate, either houses, lands, or any other 
his reall estate — and at the end of her life, then it shall 
returne to the heires of the saide John Phillips, excepting 
her wearing apparell and her bed and beding and such fur- 
niture as belongs thereunto, which she shall and may give 
att her death to whom she pleaseth, all the rest of the thirds 
to return to the heires of the said John Phillips. 

In witness whereof the said John Phillips and Faith 
Dotey have mutually sett hereunto their hands, the twenty 
third of February anne 1666-7. 

The marke of X John Phillips. 

The marke £ Faith Dotey. 
In the p sence of 

Thomas Southworth 

Desire Dotey ' ' 

March 14, 1666-7, some nine months after the sudden 
and tragic death of his second wife, Mr. Phillips, at the age 
of sixty-five, married Mrs. Faith Dotej-^ as his third wife, 
she being seventeen years younger than he. 

Presumably some of Mrs. Dotey's younger children 
accompanied their mother to her new home at Marshfield, 
three of them, at least — a son and two daughters — being 
"under age "^ at the time of her marriage to her second 
husband. 

Mr. Phillips now apparently, had beneath his roof, be- 
side himself and wife, four separate contingents, or family 



1. Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. VIII, p. 31. 

2. She really had four children then under age, but her son 
Isaac, born 1648, was man-grown ; Joseph, born 1651, was probably not 
over fourteen and Mary was still younger, so that there then were 
three, at least, needing still a mother's care. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 27 

representations, viz : — his son Samuel and daughter Mary, 
children by his first wife ; his two sons, Joseph and Benja- 
min, children by his second wife ; Hannah (or Jane) Hallo- 
way, the daughter of his second wife by her former husband, 
and the children of his third, or present wife Faith, by her 
former husband (Dotey). 

With so many and so various parties, with but few and 
feeble bonds of common interest to bind them together or 
restrain them, entire peace and harmony were hardly to be 
expected and it is not surprising that some of them — as in 
the case of Mary Phillips and Hannah (or Jane) Halloway, 
before mentioned^ — should have come into collision. It 
would, indeed, have been remarkable if they had not. 

Mr. Phillips lived with his third wife. Faith, some eight 
years, but had, it is understood, no children by her — indeed 
she was forty-eight years old at the time of her marriage to 
him, having been fifteen years of age, when she came to 
New England in the ship "Francis" of Ipswich, England, 
in 1634.^ 

The exact date of Mrs. Faith Phillips' death is not 
known, but Marshfield records show that she was " buried "^ 
there Dec. 21, 1675, at the age of fifty-six years. Her will, 
or what was intended by her as such,* was apparently so 
incomplete in form, as (having been read by Lieutenant 



1. See p. 21, ante. 

2. Savage's Geneal. Diet., Vol. I. Drake's Founders of N. E., 
P-53- 

3. Marshfield Town Records, Vol. I, p. 5. Mayflower Descendant , 
Vol. II, p. 181. 

4. Plym. Col. Wills, Vol. Ill, Part 2, p. 12. Mayflower Descend- 
ant, Vol. Ill, p. 89, et seq. 



28 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

Peregrine White)^ to be practically nuncupative only. Her 
memorandum, doubtless prepared for her, without taking 
competent counsel, was dated Dec. 12, 1675, a few days only 
before her death, and did not sufi&ciently dispose of all of her 
property or interests.^ The bequests made by it were small 
ones only, to her three daughters by her former husband 
(Dotey), and even they were incomplete. The Colony Court 
sitting in June, 1676, saw fit therefore, to treat her testament 
as a nuncupative will and to grant administration^ under it, 
so far as it went, to the three daughters named therein, 
Desire (Sherman), Elizabeth (Rouse) and Mary Dotey. A 
considerable part of the estate Mrs. Phillips inherited from 
her former husband (Dotey) she appears to have disposed of 
by "bill of sale," to her son John Dotey,* under certain 
obligations on his part, as to her other children. The Court 



1. Lieut. Peregrine White to whom, by the Court Records, Mrs. 
Faith Phillips seems to have shown, shortly before her death, the mem- 
orandum she intended for her will, lived not much over a mile from 
the Phillipses on the " South River road," and being a man of impor- 
tance in the community and Colony, was no doubt, sent for by Mrs. 
Phillips, to take the acknowledgement of this expression of her 
wishes as to her property, as was then customary. For some reason, 
perhaps her feebleness, a legal and complete will was not made. 

2. She had relinquished in Court, in March, 1635, to her children, 
all her interests (dower only,) in lands at Coaksett and adjoining 
places and had transferred most of her property by " bill of sale " to 
her son John, under conditions for the others, but she still left unde- 
vised her personal property, apparel, etc., and the very little money 
in Mr. Phillips' hands. She does not seem to have let a penny go to 
any of the Phillipses, not even to her husband, who promptly turned 
in to her heirs, even the thirty shillings he held for her. She evi- 
dently "hewed to the line" of their ante-nuptial agreement and 
probably Mr. Phillips wished her to. 

3. Plym. Col. Wills, Vol. Ill, Part 2, pp. 12, et 5^^., June 3, 1676. 

4. See the will itself for further details, or Mayflower Descend- 
ant, Vol. 3, p. 89 for liberal digest thereof. 




TiiK i'i<;ri';c;rinj'; whitiv homkstkau. 

Hiiilt by him. Now demolished. (Origiual.) 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 29 

sitting Nov. 4, 1676,^ granted later letters of administration, 
on behalf of the three daughters — and doubtless at their 
request — to John Rouse of Marshfield (husband of Eliza- 
beth), upon the estate of Faith Phillips, and under orders^ 
issued July 10/20, 1676, with the consent of her sons, the 
Court permitted the 30/s of her estate which remained in the 
hands of her late husband, John Phillips, to be divided 
equally among her daughters, with a recommendation to the 
other two that they release their parts to their sister Desire 
Sherman, because of her impoverished condition, her hus- 
band having become " destracted " in the Indian wars.^ 

Jan. 16, 1676, Mr. Phillips' only remaining son of his 
children by his first wife — Samuel Phillips, seems to have 
married* a "widow Mary Cobb," and apparently, removed not 
long after, to Taunton,® where he had a family, though 
records concerning him are but meagre. 

In March of the following year, Mr. Phillips lost, as 
noted, his elder son (by his second wife, Grace) Joseph 
Phillips,* in the heroic fight of Capt. Michael Pierce's com- 



1. Plym. Col. Recs., Court Orders, Nov. 4, 1676. Letter of 
administration to John Rouse. 

2. Plym. Col. Recs., Court Orders, Vol. V, p. 163. 

3. William Sherman, Jr., married Desire Dotey. He was a 
soldier in "Philips' War," became " destracted " and died, when his 
widow married Israel Holmes and after his death by drowning, Alex- 
ander Standish, eldest son of the famous Pilgrim Captain, Myles 
Standish. 

4. Winsor's Hist, of Duxbury, p. 292, note. Davis' Ancient 
Landmarks of Plymouth, p. 206. 

5. Idem, and Plym. Col. Recs., Vol. VI. 

6. The list of the men of Marshfield slain in Rehoboth fight 
under Captain Pierce, given in the letter of Rev. Mr. Newman (See 
Deane's Hist, of Scit., p. 123), gives Joseph Phillips' name, and there 
are several other records of his death in the fight. Mr. Newman 



30 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OP 

mand at Rehoboth, against an overwhelming body of Indians 
in which Pierce's command was obliterated. By this blow 
Mr. Phillips lost a third son — beside his wife — by a violent 
death. 

In 1677, Mr. Phillips seems again to have sought a com- 
panion for his loneliness and his declining years — he being 
then seventy -five years of age — and appears by the records,' 
to have married April 3 of that year, Mrs. Ann Torrey, the 
widow probably, of I^ieut. James Torrey of Scituate (who 
died in 1665), and daughter of Elder William Hatch of that 
town.* She was born about 1623, and so at the time of her 
marriage to Mr. Phillips, was about fifty-four years of age, 
some twenty years younger than he. She had borne her 
first husband ten children and had had her share of the 
vicissitudes and trials of life. 

Although no record of her death has been discovered, 
and she was twenty years younger than Mr. Phillips, she 
must have died before him (unless an undiscovered ante- 
nuptial agreement cut her off from any share in his estate) 
as she is not mentioned in his will^ and was presumably 
dead when it was made. 

July 12, 1681, Mr. Phillips' surviving son by his second 
wife, (Grace) Benjamin Phillips, married Sarah Thomas,* 



helped bury the dead upon the battlefield and the testimony of his 
letter, written immediately thereafter, may be taken as conclusive. 

1. Marshfield Town Recs., Vol. I, p. 4. Hist, of Duxbury, p. 
292. Note. Mrs. Torrey's house had just before been burned by 
Indians. 

2. Deane, op. cit. p. 279. Scituate, (Mass.), Town Records, (VoL 
IV, Part 2, p. I, gives the marriage of James Torrey and Ann Hatch, 
under date Nov. 2, 1643. 

3. Plym. Col. Wills, Vol. I. p. 140. Genealogy Advertiser, Vol. 
3, p. 28. 

4. Marshfield Town Recs., Vol. I, p. 11. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 31 

daughter of John and Sarah (Pitney)^ Thomas of Marsh- 
field, and by deed of gift (" from natural affection"), dated 
Nov. 15, 1681, Mr. Phillips gave^ to Benjamin, one "moiety 
of all his housing and lands" and "half his cattle and 
sheep." The young couple evidently "settled down " upon 
the homestead farm of Mr. Phillips the elder, to care for 
him and it and rear a family of their own. Here they 
' ' raised ' ' a family of ten children, six sons and four daugh- 
ters,^ Mr. John Phillips, Senior, living to welcome five of 
them (the eldest being his namesake) beside one or more 
children of his son Samuel,^ as Mr. Phillips' will and certain 
records attest. 

The exact date of the death of Mr. John Phillips is not 
known, but as his will was dated ^ Oct. 20, 1691, and was pro- 
bated ^ May 10, 1692, he must have died between these dates, 
probably early in May,^ 1692. His will recites his age at its 



1. John Thomas and Sarah Pitney were married at Marshfield 
"21 of December 1648." (Marshfield Town Records, Vol. I, p. 3). 
" Sarah, dau. of John Thomas was born Sept. — 1661," (Idem). 

2. Plym. Col. Deeds, Vol. II. Deed of gift witnessed by John 
Thomas and Nathaniel Thomas. 

3. The children of Benj. and Sarah (Thomas) Phillips were : 
John, b. 1682 : Joseph, b. 1685; Benjamin, b. 1687; Sarah, b. 1689; 
Thomas, b. 1691 : Hannah, b. 1693, Jeremiah, b. 1697; Abigail, b. 1699; 
Isaac, b. 1703 ; Bethia, b. 1705. (Davis' Ancient Landmarks of 
Plymouth). — See Tabular chart at end of volume. 

4. Samuel Phillips married widow Mary Cobb, May 15, 1676 and 
had : — Mehitable, b. Jan. 9, 1676-7 ; Samuel, b. 1678 ; and perhaps 
Thomas. Samuel seems to have lived at Taunton. As Mr. John Phillips 
mentioned the children of his sons Samuel and Benjamin in his will 
as his grandchildren, it is fair to believe there were no others. 

5. Plym. Col. Wills, Vol. I, p. 140. 

6. Idem. 

7. It was the usual custom to offer a will for probate if practica- 
ble, within ten days or a fortnight, after the death of the testator, 
much depending, however, on the accessibility of the Court. 



32 THE FAMILY AND VICISSITUDES OF 

date, as " about eighty-nine years," and declares the testator 
as then " being at present in some measure of health." 

It devises : — "To eldest son Samuel, ;i^5 and wearing 
appareU;" to grandson John Phillips, son of my son Benja- 
min, my gun or fowling piece ;" " To the rest of my grand- 
children, viz : the children of my sons Samuel and Benjamin, 
each 5/s." "To son Benjamin all houses and lands at 
Marshfield or elsewhere, also rest of goods," he to maintain 
and provide for " my Daughter Mary Phillips who by Reason 
of ye weakness of her Reason & understanding is incapable 
to maintain and provide for herself." Benjamin is named 
by the will as sole executor. 

The inventory^ of his estate gave a total only of ^45-15-6 
which though modest, even for that day, ( being the equiva- 
lent then, in purchase value of $1,000), still proved him 
solvent, at the end of a very long life, noted for and full of, 
rare vicissitudes, trials and burdens. Although, as Miss 
Thomas declares, — " A man of many sorrows," his integrity, 
his abounding hospitality, his courage, his high standards, 
and his unwearied thoughtfulness for others, seem never to 
have been a whit abated by his many misfortunes. He was 
a good type of the sturdy New England yeomanry of that 
day. A courtly, kindly, honorable "Old Colony" progenitor. 

I. Plym. Col. Probate Recs., Vol. I, p. 141. 



JOHN PHILLIPS, SENIOR, OF MARSHFIELD. 



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APPENDIX. 

After the foregoing pages were sent to press, more than 
a year ago, the author learned of the existence of certain 
papers likely to throw light upon, and perhaps permit definite 
conclusions in regard to, some unsettled points concerning the 
Phillips Family, which it was desirable to determine, if possi- 
ble, before publication, and after much vexatious but unavoid- 
able delay he has been able to secure photographic copies 
of three original deeds, found among the "Clark I^eonard 
papers," now in possession of the N. E. Hist. Genealogical 
Society of Boston, by whose courtesy and cooperation they 
are presented herewith. 

By them, and the earlier lease of Grace (Halloway) Reade 
and her husband in 1866 (See p. 9, a7ite), several points of 
importance in connection with the Phillips narrative are set- 
tled beyond reasonable doubt. These are : {a) That Wil- 
liam Halloway and his wife Grace (afterward Mrs. Phillips) 
certainly left but two children, the daughters Grace and Han- 
nah, as named, as proven by the facts that each of them had 
an ' ' equal halfe-part ' ' of their mother's real estate, which both 
declare was " formerly their father's " ; {b) that hence there 
could have been no ''Jane Halloway" (unless this was an- 
other name of Hannah's), as given in 1668 in Plymouth Col- 
ony Records (Vol. IV., p. 187) associated with that of Mary 
Phillips ; {c) that Hannah undoubtedly married, sometime 
between 1668 and 1673, "John Reade of the towne of Nor- 
wich, in the Colloney of Connecktecutt," who was, as else- 
where appears (Miss Caulkin's Hist, of Norwich, Conn., p. 
197) a brother of the Josiah Reade, who, as we have seen (pp. 
9, 23, anfe)^ married her sister Grace in November, 1666. 



BmBn^^MHmii 



11 APPENDIX. 

This definitely accounts for and ' ' disposes of ' ' Hannah, in cor- 
rection of previous statements herein (pp. 17, 24, ante) ; {d) 
that all the former realty of William Halloway thus came into 
the hands of one man, Deacon William Ford, Senior, the first 
miller of Marshfield (none of it going to Mr. Phillips) ; and 
((?) that the "meadow land" conveyed (being that where 
young John Phillips, Jr., was " making hay " just before he 
was killed by lightning, in 1658) lay "betwixt the lot of 
Timothy Williamson, formerly Rev. Mr. Buikley's * * * and 
John Bourne," and so can be approximately located today. 

In confirmation of the suggestions made (pp. 7-10, ante) 
as to the occupancy of the former dwelling of Rev. Mr. Bulk- 
ley by Timothy Williamson, is the following, recently taken 
from the early records of the town of Marshfield : 

"Jan. 7, 1657-8. At the town meeting the inhabitants 
voted that they are willing to purchase of Mr. Edward Bulk- 
ley all his right and claims in the houses and meadow lands 
and uplands which he stands possessed of in Marshfield, and 
re7ited 07it now by the said Mr. Edward Btdkley to Timothy Wil- 
liamson of this town'' It appears hy later entries that the 
town did so purchase. 

In the record of a town meeting of the Town of Marsh- 
field, held May 21, 1650, it is minuted that "Mr. John 
Phillips hath put his son, William Phillips, being about the 
age of seven years the first of Dec. last past, unto Mr. John 
Bradford of the town of Duxborough, and his now wife, or 
either of them, or the survivor of them, after the manner of 
an apprentice, for and during the term of fourteen years, from 
the first of Dec. aforesaid" [1649], etc. The "said Brad- 
ford to feed, clothe, teach him to read and write, and give 
him that education as becometh a master to a servant." 
This indenture would, in the ordinary course, expire in 1663, 
and the said William (?) was then to be paid "2 suits of 
apparell and also the sum of five pounds sterling, either in 
corn or cattle." 



APPKNDIX. Ill 

Miss Marcia A. Thomas, in her "Memorials of Marsh- 
field," mentions a William Phillips as the son of John Phil- 
lips, Sen. (see p. 7, note, ante), and thereby clearly indicates 
that she had seen the above mentioned entry in the town 
records, for no other mention of a son William to John Phil- 
lips has an3^where been found, and Miss Thomas was unques- 
tionably closely familiar with the early Marshfield records. 
She fails, however, to mention either a son Samuel, or a 
daughter Mary, as children of Mr. Phillips, although he 
names them both in his will, and both were certainly his chil- 
dren by his first wife, John Phillips, Jr. having apparently 
been his first-born, though he named Samuel, at the time he 
made his will, as {ihen) his "eldest son." 

Either the name in the (1650) entry on the town records 
of Marshfield should read Samuel instead of William, or there 
was a William (of whom absolutely nothing further is known) , 
who was born about 1642, — according to his age as given in 
connection with the indenture. If there was such son Wil- 
liam he must have died early or have totally disappeared 
otherwise. If the name William was accidentally substi- 
tuted, as appears probable, for Samuel (as the name "Jane" 
undoubtedly was for that of " Hannah " Halloway in the Col- 
ony records, as before mentioned), then it is evident that there 
was no son William and the town record cited relates to Samuel, 
and this supposition is in accord with all other known and 
related facts. 

The indenture referred to expired in 1663, and the inden- 
tured son would have then been free and very likely to be 
again at home with his father, as Samuel certainly was, at 
the time his step-mother and brother Jeremiah were killed by 
lightning in 1666, at which time he would have been twenty- 
four years of age. 

If it was, as appears, Samuel, and 7ioi William, who was 
indentured by his father in 1649, the children of Mr. John 
Phillips, Sen., were: — 



iv APPEINDIX. 

By his first wife Mary (?) : 

John: probably born (from his estimated age at 

death) about 1633-5 ; 
Samuel : born (as shown) about 1642 ; 
Jere^niah: probably born (from his stated age at 

death) about 1644-6, and 
Mary : concerning the date of whose death there 
seems to be no guiding data, though certain 
facts suggest that she was very likely born 
between John and Samuel. 
It appears probable that Mr. Phillips' first wife (Mary), ? 
the mother of the above-named children, died between 1646 — 
the presumable date of Jeremiah's birth — and 1649, the year 
when Samuel (or William?) was indentured to Mr. Bradford, 
and that her death may have occasioned the indenture. 

Mr. Phillips having married, in 1654, his second wife, 
Mrs. Grace Halloway, — a widow with two young daughters, 
as we have seen — had by her two sons : 

Joseph : born Mar. 31, 1655, and 
Benjamin: born (prob.) 1658. (Baptized Aug. 15, 
1658.) 
So that all the children Mr. Phillips is known to have had 
are accounted for and enumerated and do not inchLde any son 
William^ and nojie is named in his will. 

The ancient records of the Second Church of Scituate, 
(Mass.)— now the First Unitarian Church of Norwell, Mass. 
— show(A^. E. Hist. Genal. Register, Vol. 59), under date of 
Oct. 4, 1657, the baptisms of "Grace and Hannah, daugh- 
ters of John Phillips." There is no room for doubt that these 
were Grace and Hannah Halloway, step or Joster-danghters of 
John Phillips, being the daughters of his second wife, Grace 

( ) Halloway, by her former husband. That they were 

never formally or legally adopted by Mr. Phillips as his 
"daughters," is rendered certain by their being known 
legally, up to the respective dates of their marriages, by their 
father's name of Halloway. The same records also give the 



APPENDIX. V 

baptism of Betzjatnin, the second son of John Phillips, by 
Grace, his second wife, under date of Aug. 15, 1658, viz. : — 

" Benjamin sonne of John Phillips." 

Why these baptisms should have occurred at the ' ' vSec- 
ond Church" of Scituate, rather than at the nearer old "First 
Church" of Marshfield, does not appear. 

It is of interest to note in connection with the mention 
made (p. 29, text and note) of the division of a small sum of 
money in Mr. Phillips' hands, belonging to his third wife, 
Faith, among her daughters, by order of Court, and the rec- 
ommendation of the Court that the others release their parts 
to their sister Desire Sherman, because of her impoverished 
condition, her husband having become " destracted in the 
Indian wars," that Desire Dotey married her husband, Wil- 
liam Sherman, Jr., Dec. 25, 1667, the Christmas following 
Mr. Phillips' marriage (in March) to her mother, not improb- 
ably from Mr. Phillips' home, and that Benjamin Phillips, 
grandson of John, married in 1728, a Desire Sherman, doubt- 
less of the second generation after Desire (Dotey) Sherman 
and of her lineage. 

The following from "Notes on the Indian Wars" (A^. 
E. Hist. Gcneal. Register, Vol. 15, p. 266) throws light upon 
the peculiar " destraction " of the husband of Desire (Dotey), 
Mr. Phillips' step-daughter, who certainly had, like her foster- 
father, her share of the vicissitudes of life. 

' ' Among the first of the Massachusetts soldiers who 
arrived at Swansey was one William Sherman, Jr., of Water- 
town [ ? probably error] . This man on seeing the successess 
of the Indians and hearing many profane oaths among some 
of our soldiers, namely those privateers, and considering the 
unseasonableness of the weather was such that nothing would 
be done against the enemj', was pOvSsessed with a strong con- 
ceit that God was against the English wherefore he immedi- 
ately ran distracted and so even returned home a lamentable 
spectacle." 

In a note to the foregoing, credit is given for it to Dr. 
Increase Mather's Brief History, and it is added, that; " Dr. 



VI APPENDIX. 

Mather does not give the name of the distracted (insane) man, 
but that from a document among the Mass. Archives it appears, 
that as late as the following October, Sherman remained bereft 
of his reason, for the General Court ordained that his wife. 
Desire Sherman, be allowed ^20 toward the relief of them 
and their family." 

Sherman died, insane, in 1680, and his widow married 
Israel Holmes of Marshfield, in 1681. He was drowned in 
Plymouth harbor in 1684, and she married, as her third hus- 
band, Alexander Standish of Duxbury, eldest son of Capt. 
Miles Standish, as his second wife, and was the mother of his 
three youngest children, having had five by her first husband, 
and two by her second, making in all ten children. She died 
in 1 731, aged 86 years. Her beauty in early life is reputed to 
have been as remarkable as were her experiences and those 
of her step-father, Mr. Phillips. 



Marshfield ye 12 of September, 1670. 
These presents doth testify that I, Josiah Read, of ye town of Norridge, in ye Collony of 
Connecticote, have sold and made over (to William Ford, Senior, of the town of Marshfield, 
in ye Collony of new Plimouth), all the Right, title and interest in the one halfe of all the 
lands and meadows that was formerly my father in law, William Holloways, deceased, and 
doth apertain and belong to my wife, Grace Read, by Inheritance, these said lands I do 
fully sell & make over in behalfe of my aforesaid wife, & myself to William Ford above- 
sayd, and his heirs forever, for and in consideration of the payment of the full and just 
summe of eighteen pounds sterling, to be paydto mee the sayd Josiah, or my assignes at or 
before the twenty ninth of September, in the year 1671 (vide) six pounds in currant money 
and twelve pounds to be payd in merchantable Inglish goods at Boston at prices currant. 
Sd goods is to be in duffetie and trading cloth for the Indians md such other goods sutable 
thereunto at prices currant, and for the true performance of ye premises I have set to my 
hand this day and year above written. 
Witness : John Bourne, 
Robert X Cutter, Josiah Read. 

his mark. 
Grace Read, the wife of Josiah Read above mentioned, did acknowledge her full and 
free consent to the above sd sale and doth pass over all her right in the premises from her- 
self and her heirs unto the sd Ford and his heirs, July 17, —71. 

Before 

Josiah Winslow 
Assist. 










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Marshfield, the 6 of September, 1673. 

Know all men by these presents : that whereas Hannah Read (sometyms Hannah Hol- 
loway) wife to John Read of the town of Norwich, in the Colloney of Couneckticote, having 
the whole halfe part of two pells of land, which was sometynies her father's, William Hol- 
loway, the one poll being the halfe of twenty-five ackers of upland purchased by the afore- 
said William of Arthur Howland, Senior, as also the one halfe part of the meadow belonging 
to the said upland, lying in Marshfield betwixt the lot of Timothy Williamson of the one 
side and John Bourne of the other side : as also the one-halfe part of thirty ackers of up- 
land granted by the towue of Marshfield to the aforesaid William and his heires forever; 
these are therefore to testify to any whom it may concerne: that I, Hannah Read, wife to 
John Read of ye towne aforesaid, have (and with the consent of my husband, the aforesaid 
John) sold, ailiened, enfeofed and made over all my whole right and Interest of all, and 
singular these pts and pells of land and meadow lying and being in Marshfield, from mee, 
my heirs, executors, administrators and assignes for ever to William Ford, Senior, of the 
town of Marshfield, milner : to him, his heires, executours, administrators and assigns for- 
ever; for and in consideration of the full and just summe of fifteene pounds in currant 
mony ; eight pounds thereof to be in hand paid at the signing hereof ; and seven pounds to 
be paid at or before the last of September next ensuing the date hereof (vide) in the year 
1674, and for the true p formance of the p misses, I, the aforesaid Hannah, do set to my 
hand and seale the day and year above written. 

Signed, sealed The mark of 

and delivered in Hanah x Read. [Seal.] 

p sence of 

Nath Thomas This instrument was acknowledged by the afore- 

the mark of said Hanah Read at the time of the ensealing hereof 

Deborah D T Thomas. and the sayd Hannah did freely resign and give up 

her interest in the above mentioned lands. 

Before Josiah Winslow, Governor. 







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To all people to whom these pseuts shall come John Read of the towue of Nor- 
wich, in the Collouey of Connecktecutt, in New England, and Hannah, his wife, 
send Greeting, etc. 

Know yee that we, the sd John and Hannah Read for and consideration of the 
full and just sum of fifteen pounds in currant New Kngland money to us in hand 
paid before the ensealing hereof by William fford, Sen., of the towne of Marshfield, 
in the Coloney of New Pliraoth, in New England, aforesaid, the resept whereof we, 
the sd John and Hanah Read, doe acknowledg by these psents, and thereof doe exon- 
erate, acquitt and discharge the aforesaid William fford, his heires, executors and 
administrators forever, have granted, aleened, bargained, sould, eufeofed and con- 
firmed, and by these psents doe freely, fully and absolutely grant, alien, bargain, 
sell, infeofe and confirm for us and our heires forever unto him, the sd William 
fford, his heirs and assignes lor ever, all our lands being and lying in the township 
of Marshfield, aforesaid, viz., the one moiety, or halfe part of all the lands which 
William Holloway, late of Marshfield, aforesaid, deceased father of the sd Hanah, 
died seised of, namely, all the one-half part of all the land, both upland and meadow, 
purchased by the sd William Holloway of Arthur Howland, and all the one-half 
part of thirty acrees of upland, be it more or less granted to the sd William Hollo- 
way by the town of Marshfield, and bounded as doth and may appear upon record 
in the towne book of Marshfield, aforsd, which sd lands doth been of late in the 
occupation of the sd William fford. To Have and to Hold all the above sd lands ,with 
all and singular their rights, members and appurteuces, profits, privileges and 
benefits, to him, the sd William fford, his heirs and assigns for ever, and We, the sd 
John and Hanah Read, for themselves, their heirs, executors and administrators, to 
and with the said William fiord his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, 
and every of them doth promis covenant and grant in manor and form following 
(that is to say), that the said bargained premises are free and clear, and clearly 
acquited of and from all incumbrance whatsoever by us, the said John or Hanah 
Read, or by any other person or persons whatsoever, by either of our privity or pro- 
curement made, had committed, sufiered, omitted or done, and that the sd John and 
Hanah Read are, until the sealing and delivery of these presents, seised of all the 
abovesd lands in fee simple (that is to say) of a just estat of inheritance, and wee, 
the said John and Hanah Read, for our selves and our heirs, to the sd William fford, 
his heirs and assigns, shall and will Warrant and for ever defend the same by these 
presents, in Witness Whereof we, the abovesaid John and Hanah Read, have here- 
unto set our hands and seals this first day of September in the year of our Lord God 
one thousand si.x: hundred seventy four. 

Signed and sealed in the John Read. [Seal.] 

pseuts of the 

John Thomas 
the mark of 
John B. Branch, Sen. 

This deed was acknowledged by the above mentioned John Read 
to bee his free and voluntary act at the time of his insealing there of before 

JOSIAH WINSLOW, 

Gov. 






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